I DO love them so much I'd marry them.

First their album FUNERAL was simply amazing. Death has never been wrapped so mysteriously in hope and joy. That's the only way I can describe it. I can count on one hand the number of albums that have affected me as deeply as this one:

U2's Joshua Tree
U2's Achtung Baby!
Over The Rhine's Good Dog Bad Dog
Radiohead's Ok Computer <edited to add this album>

Since at this point in my life I have two kids and work full time, I haven't had as many opportunities in my life to really LISTEN to music. I hear music all the time, but LISTENING is an entirely different thing. I LISTENED to the new Arcade Fire because it touched that chord in me like these other albums had.

I haven't given Neon Bible as many listens as the previous albums on my list (it's too new), but I already love it.

What are your thoughts on the new album? I won't be hurt if you don't love it like I do, but I'm wondering if anyone else is excited as I am about it.

I love the new album myself. Every time I listen to it I fall even more in love with it. So freaking stoked about getting to see them in May.

I've listened to a few tracks from it, and I've really enjoyed those. "enjoyed" probably isn't the word i should use, but you know what i mean.

Joshua Tree & GDBD? high praise indeed. Im going to have to give them a spin, since I am unenlightened.

"Since at this point in my life I have two kids and work full time,..."

ditto. I used to be neck deep in music, but I lost a handfull of years... and have just gotten back into it in the last 18 months or so, at least according to the added 150 or so new CDs I added in the last year. I feel like I'm running to stand still. ;-)

(arcade fire... added to the queue of bands I know nothing about....)

-Steve

I have both the Arcade Fire EP and Funeral. I listened to them sevaral times. It just doesn't do it for me. I read a lot of reviews that talk about it being brilliant, etc. Maybe I'll pull it out and give it another try...

I'd heard such good reviews of this album that I allowed it several listens...and then I got it.
I didn't like it much on first listen. I felt that same way about Radiohead's Ok Computer. Shoot. That's the other album that should be in my list. I think I'll add it.

Anyways, after 3 or 4 full listens I got it and loved it.



<edited for dumb spelling>

bit of a tangent here...

I feel this way a LOT lately with a LOT of the new Indie sweethearts out there. By Indie I don't necessarily mean an indpt. label, but the style of music that's come to be asscociated with said labels. You guys know what I mean...

I mean, when I scanned down just about every critics top 50 list for 2006, I don't know if one of them failed to mention Ys by Joanna Newsome and Fox Confessor... by Neko Case...

...and I just don't get it. I went out and got both albums because some people (critics and otherwise) that I really respect just raved about these records. It's like the litmus test of greatness these days is weirdness. If you're not saying what you're saying in an avant-garde, esoteric way, it must not be important.

I don't know. That's probably exagerrating. I don't mean to pick on just those 2 albums. They were just the best illustrations that came to mind. And I thought both of them to be great showcases of musical talent...just nothing life-altering. The Neko Case has grown on me a bit, but Joanna is still just a little out there.

I'll have to go to iTunes and give the new Arcade Fire a listen. Maybe this will be different.

I hate to say this, but I'm in agreement with you and Skoey. Scary. The only thing more shocking is if I agreed with Brookd as well. I am going to see if I can find the station copy and give it a serious listen. But the tracks I've heard so far don't do anything for me either way. I don't get it. Maybe I will and the skies will part and knowledge/understanding will beam down from above. Or maybe I'll figure out that I don't like it and that will be that. Plenty of other bands/artists out there. Right Kent?

Radiohead's OK Computer was like that for me too. I didn't like it when I first heard it, so I shelved it. After reading so many people rave I decided I'd try again. I got it. I liked it. Then I loved it.

There are many artists out there that have been equally hyped and I just didn't like them. I've come to accept that certain things will strike me more than they do others.

I also have Neko Case's Fox Confessor album and it doesn't slay me. I like it musically, but it doesn't take me anywhere special. I like Neko in the New Pornographers a whole lot more than her solo work. Just a preference I think.

yes... ditto.

too bad we won't be at the same show, aaron!

I just got it and am SO looking forward to listening to this. I have already been listening to it in my car but haven't really soaked it up yet.

Favorite songs anyone?

So far the ones I keep going back to are the ones with "Car" in the title.
No Cars Go and Keep The Car Running are neck and neck.

I like Neon Bible and think of it as the "Kettles" song for this album.
Really, there are a lot of good songs on this one. All of them. But I AM a fan now aren't I?

Well.....I might be able to get my hands on a couple extra seats. they wouldn't be near mine, and you would have to pay for them, but let me know if you're interested.

I've given these guys a listen recently. They certainly have a lot of talent, but I keep hearing other bands in their songs. On Funeral, I hear a lot of that now-standard 80's garage band revival sound, ala The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys, etc. Neon Bible is almost all over the map. "Keep the Car Running" sounds almost exactly like John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band's "On the Dark Side" and I hear Win Butler sounding a LOT like Ian McCulloch on most of these songs. I can almost imagine seeing these guys live, playing a cover of "Lips Like Sugar" or "Bring On the Dancing Horses." Talented band, but treading on established trails. To me, there is nothing "indie" or experimental about that, so perhaps they should move away from those labels.